By Christopher Tremblay, Staff Sports Writer

Ashland’s Carlos Espino is a three-sport athlete for the Clockers playing soccer, basketball and baseball. However, the junior may give up on baseball this spring to focus on his education.  

This year Espino was not only named a captain for the soccer team, but his  teammates also selected the junior as a captain for the basketball team. 

According to Ashland boys’ basketball coach Mike Normant, players, coaches and outgoing seniors have a say in who the captain(s) should be. Espino was named a junior captain on the basketball team, having already been named a captain to the soccer team in the fall.

“Carlos was selected by his teammates unanimously to be a captain for the team this year, that says a lot about him and how he brings people together,” Normant said. “The outgoing seniors also thought that he’d be a good fit as a captain. Everyone likes him; he takes his role and time on the court seriously.”

Espino says that he wants to be inclusive with every one of his teammates while forming good relationships. 

“As a captain I want to be nice to my teammates, but I also want to compete a high level,” he said. “We should have fun as a team, but we should also be able to step up when we need to and take things seriously.”

Having played soccer and basketball since he was about 4 or 5 years old, the Ashland athlete made the soccer varsity team as a freshman and the basketball team as a sophomore. As a freshman he found that his minutes on the court where for the junior varsity team and when he actually was awarded a varsity jersey as a sophomore his time on the court was minimal.

“Making the team as a sophomore Carlos didn’t play a lot for the varsity team, the majority of his action was for the junior varsity team,” the Ashland Coach said. “With that said, being named the captain as a junior by his teammates says a lot about the type of person he is. From a leadership perspective he is the most respected player that I have coached In many year.”

The Clocker captain is usually a lead-by-example type of captain, but according to the Coach he is starting to find his vocal leadership growing.

“Being named a captain means a lot to me. Having played with this team over the last few years I want to succeed with them,” Espino said. “They look to me as a leader and although I do more leading by example I am starting to be vocal with them. Sometimes you need to talk to them to get them to do what is needed for the team.”

Unfortunately during his first year as co-captain Espino and his teammates have found themselves having a tough season.  With only a handful of games remaining at the time of this writing the Clockers have only been able to secure one win this season.

“We have a lot of new varsity players and they are a little nervous to step up their game at this point, but I hope that I am taking what I learned from my past captains and bring it to them,” he said. “Regardless of our record our chemistry on and off the court has been good and we are getting better. They have been picking things up and doing a better job over the last few games.”

As the team’s starting point guard this winter, Espino has seen more time on the court than anyone on the Clocker team and has been a key contributor in running the offense.  

Normant believes that over the last year and a half Espino has been the squad’s most improved player, continuously working hard to improve.

“For next season as a player he’ll need to work on his ability to get to the basket and finish at the rim despite his smaller size at 5’10”,” Normant said. “Defensively he is very solid, but we are always looking to have players work on that area.”

On the court Espino finds himself as a facilitator to get his teammates that open look, but he also knows that there is always room for growth.

“My dribbling is probably the best part of my game, with my three-point shoot being the weakest,” he said. “I do know that I also have to work on going to the rim and being able to finish if I want to be that complete player that the coach is looking for.”

Coming into the year, Espino was hoping to make the tournament and although that is not going to happen this winter he wants to see the team continue to play hard and improve for next year.

“The Ashland basketball program hasn’t been to the tournament in a while so that is definitely a goal that we are going to be looking to achieve next season,” Espino said. “And although making the tournament will be our top priority, I also want to have fun as a team.”